Plant recording for National Collections

It's important to keep accurate records about your National Plant Collection, to go with your plants.

There are various different ways to record your plants. Our preferred recording system, if you are not already using a horticultural database product (such as BG-BASE or Iris), is called Persephone. This is a user-friendly, secure online database, developed specifically to meet the needs of Plant Heritage and Collection Holders. It's free to use to record your collection, and you will get help to set yourself up, plus videos and online or in person training sessions on offer during the year year. 

Alternatively, if you prefer to start out recording your plant list using a simple excel spreadsheet. Here is a basic template. As different collections have different data recording needs, please contact us for advice on how best to set this up for your particular collection. 

At a minimum, it is important that you keep a basic record for each plant in your National Collection including its correct plant name, the date you acquired it and where you got it from. Each individual plant should have a unique identifying code - an accession number. 

Plants can also be physically recorded by making herbarium sheets. These can either be kept for your own records or sent to a herbarium, where they will be available as a resource for future researchers. Digital copied can be kept with your records in Persephone.